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July 2008

July 29, 2008

I ran into a few snags - what quilt would be complete without them? I spent a long while at the UPS Store nearest me...the guys who work there are about 25 years old maybe - they're awesome - helpful and informed. One of them dedicated himself to my project - reducing photos and making color copies for 30 minutes until I had a nice stack to work with. I cut pictures apart and laid them out allowing for seam allowances and copied them onto my EQ Premium Cotton Satin Inkjet Fabric Sheet and it was a disaster. The photos were barely recognizable - all washed out. I freaked. Then I paid attention: the package said, "INKJET" . So I came home and ran another sheet and it was fine, except my printer was dying and there were white lines everywhere...so I ran to Staples and got a new printer. It's much faster and the colors are great, so I'm pleased. The only other snag was not having enough pictures of the bride - so I had to wait several days for more to be mailed. But, I finished it and mailed it to Kathy Barlow to be quilted.
I wish I'd done the bride's pictures in dark blue instead of yellow, to match the waves, but hindsight is 20/20.

New yesterday! Heather Bailey's new line, Pop Garden, arrived - brighter than I'd expected and very happy. I also ordered the "go with" line, Bijou, and am anxiously awaiting it.

July 17, 2008

The border for this wedding quilt is done...providing all the pictures I want to include will fit inside it! My goal is to put groom's pictures in the blue 4-patches and the bride's in the yellow ones...about 50 of each. Here's the border block, which is called snail's trail. Not being fond of snails and what they do in my garden, tho', I'm calling it ocean waves.
And here's the whole border -Today I'm sorting and choosing pictures. I made an actual size 4-patch (5" finished) to help me decide. This is way harder than sewing! One more picture - this is my grandson four days ago - I know the camera angle makes his head look big, but I love his face, so I don't care how big it looks. He'll be 3 months old this week.

July 15, 2008

Nine days ago, in a creative, optimistic fever, I offered to make a wedding/photo quilt for a couple getting married August 9. Even though this blog is supposed to be about my store, somebody suggested I journal this effort, which is totally personal. So, I'd been on a 4th of July motorcycle excursion to Montana for a wedding and you know how weddings are...well, good weddings, anyway...and I got fired up to do something special for this August wedding. And I came home with a design in mind and pictures, scrapbooks, etc. from the groom's father. By Wed., I'd spoken with the bride's mother and she was moving file cabinets away from the wall where they'd been moved to have carpet installed in order to look through albums for similar memorabilia from the bride's childhood. I'm hoping to avoid soliciting photos from the engaged couple because, duh, it's a gift and therefore, a surprise.

Having visited the couple in their apartment overlooking Navy Pier in Chicago, I remember lots of blue, lots of ocean and tropical decor. I consider renigging on making this new quilt and giving them Whimsy's 2007 Shop Hop quilt, which had a Carribbean theme with a giant palm tree on it. So, the quilt will have ocean waves as a border and the interior will be some sort of intertwining thing going on, depicting the lives of the bride and groom before they met - they're very sentimental and have scrap booked every memorable moment since they did meet so they don't need me to do the same. I'm hoping for school pictures, high school yearbook autographs and compromising, naked, baby photos. For now, here's the design.

I'm off to Kinko's tomorrow to download the CD from the bride's mom and make prints I can copy onto fabric for all those 4-patches.

July 10, 2008

This year's Hop was great - we love seeing everyone! The theme was fairy tales and we were 12 Dancing Princesses, so making the quilt was a no-brainer: crowns, gowns and shoes!New this week are 23 bolts of gorgeous batiks from Robert Kaufman, including several light but patterned backgrounds that seem to disappear overnight when we get them in.

July 07, 2008

After viewing other blogs, I realize how unrealistic it was for me to think I could keep one up. I'm not a blogger - I spend only as much time online as required to read email. I do admit I have found and purchased a hand-forged pot rack for my new kitchen and I regularly order from Barnes and Noble online...but that's about it. Plus, blogging assumes I have something interesting to talk about on a semi-daily basis...something about my store, or, heaven forbid, about me. Sadly, from a blogging standpoint, from a marketing standpoint, I shy away from talking about myself...I'm a failure. While I enjoy discussing quilting, sewing, crafting, etc. while I man the cutting counter and cash register, alas, blogging is not a discussion, it's a one-man show, with me alone talking about me and/or the store, and I suck at it.

But, while you're here, I have news. In January of 2005, when I began researching a location from which to dredge the old Whimsy Cottage up from the dead, I could never have envisioned the changes that would happen in my life in the next three-and-a-half years. Now, in July, 2008, as the store is coming into its own again, the circumstances of my personal life are having a huge impact on my ability and desire to "run" my quilt shop. Other stuff is pulling hard at my heart strings and I have an increasingly difficult time justifying saying "no" to the rest of my life in favor of Whimsy. When I'm there, at work, I love it and it has my full attention and I'm full of ideas. However, at home, my attention wanders elsewhere. So, it is painful, but at the same time is freeing, to say Whimsy Cottage is for sale. This is your chance to own the ultimate stash. 435/901-2017 is my cell.